January 26, 2015-Blessing

Genesis 12:1-9

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan,

6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

Here we read the call of Abram, later to be re-named Abraham.  The Lord says to Abram to leave this country, your family, and your father’s house and go to a land I will show you.  

 And Abram went—seventy-five years old and Abram picked up and moved.  Sarai (later renamed Sarah) went as well, along with his brother’s son and all the possessions and people, and they went to go to the land of Canaan. 

In this call, the Lord makes some promises, covenants with Abram.  

I will make you a great nation… later we learn that this includes many descendents, as many as the stars.  You will be a people, a nation.

There is promise of land—the land that the Lord will show him.  In verse 7, the Lord appears to Abram again, and says to your offspring I will give this land.  And he builds an altar to the Lord.  (Here is where things get complicated in our modern day.   To which offspring—Isaac-the lineage of Jews and Christians, or Ishmael’s-the lineage of Muslims.  This is why land is important—both feel God promised that land to them.  Who is right?  It certainly is not a simple issue to deal with, and it goes beyond what we learn in the media.)

There is a promise to bless the world through Abraham.

We too are called to be a blessing for the world.  I love the movie Bruce Almighty.  I may not have this exactly like the movie, but Bruce is looking for blessings, reporting on them.  Amazing things.  Later the tagline is be a blessing.  Maybe if we focused more on being a blessing we would see blessings in our lives more readily, and so would the world.  

Lord, help us be a blessing.  Amen.